Staples’ m-commerce chief to keynote mobile day at IRCE

Office supplies giant Staples, No. 13 in the Internet Retailer Mobile Commerce Top 300, last year redesigned its app for iPhone and Android. It did so because it thinks ahead as far as possible in the fast-evolving world of mobile commerce. It knew its app had to have the latest features and functions to appease smartphone-owning consumers, who generally have high expectations of anything mobile.

“This is a complete revamp of our app; we focused on the biggest pain points of shopping. We believe this app will become the ultimate shopping companion for our small business customers,” said Brian Tilzer at the time of the redesign. Brian is vice president of e-commerce and business development for Staples.com and will keynote the Mobile Commerce Workshop at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition June 5-8 in Chicago.

Brian leads e-commerce and m-commerce for Staples.com. He’s also responsible for the planning and development of the online experience for two of Staples’ cross-channel corporate growth initiatives, Copy and Print and Office Technology. Additionally, he’s charged with developing new business opportunities to further grow the Staples.com business. Previously at Staples, Brian served as vice president of strategy of the North American delivery leadership team.

As part of the app redesign, Staples added mobile check-ins. The check-ins are similar to those conducted on popular mobile social apps such as shopkick and foursquare. A Staples customer opens the app on her iPhone when near or in a Staples store, and the app, through the iPhone’s GPS technology, senses her location. The app then displays a special offer that can be used in that store.

Staples also added a bar code scanner to the app. Now, rather than type in product names to add items to a cart, or write down product names in the supplies closet on a piece of paper to later find items on the PC site, a customer can scan the bar code on a product in her office and the item automatically displays onscreen. The customer presses a scan button to activate the feature; she points her smartphone camera at the code and the app reads it and retrieves the appropriate information.

“We want to be a real leader in mobile commerce,” Tilzer says. “We are investing like crazy. We are tripling the size of our e-commerce team, and mobile is the tip of the spear of initiatives we are pursuing to continue to innovate and be a real leader in the space.”

Plan now to attend IRCE and its Mobile Commerce Workshop to learn from Brian and 14 other workshop speakers. It will be a jam-packed day of strategies and tactics you can take right back to the office and put to use. Whether you’re new to mobile commerce or have been in the game a few years, this workshop will offer you tremendous benefits.